A new year!

Guess what! Guess what!! I won a free entry to a Run13 race!! I'm SO excited! I think I'll run the Hobbler Half. I ran the 5k a while back, but I've heard great things about the half and I'd love to run it. Plus my mom and dad will be back home from Africa and can be there to see me finish. :)

Today I did 45 minutes on the treadmill. I walked, but hey, it's a start. I felt pretty good considering I've been fighting a head cold for the past week. December was a crazy month I don't think I had one day to just rest. I can't wait to get into a routine again.

This week is an opportunity for me to get into a routine. The best time of day for me to exercise is either EARLY in the morning or during the kids quiet time in the afternoon. With the kids going back to school, my hubby going back to work, and the in-laws leaving, it'll be easier to get things done. I can't wait to be able to get back to normal.

2013!

Tomorrow is the start of "Operation Get In Shape." I'm SO excited to get back into running. I even have my plan written out on a calendar that my 8 yr old made and gave me for Christmas. It's going to take a lot of will power, but I've done it before and I can do it again. I've signed up for 3 races so far this year. I'm SO tempted to sign up for a race every month, but I'm trying to take it easy and do it right.

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone's year is an amazing one. :)

He's home!!

On the 19th I stayed over night at the hospital to show the doctor that Emmett nursed just fine. On the 20th (our 9th wedding anniversary) we were able to bring our boy home!!!! It's soo nice to have him home. The kids love him to death!!

A move in the right direction.

Well, they moved little Emmett from the NICU to the infant unit. That's a great step.

Now they're all about the feedings. For some magical reason he does full feedings with me here, but at night he'd rather sleep. What a wonderful concept, sleeping at night... I just wish they'd send him home to feed. He's above his birth weight and he's not losing weight so, I don't see the concern.

Anyway.

I think I might start one of those simple couch to 5k programs at the start of the new year. I figure I'm going to start from scratch. I'm tired of being slow and just trotting along. I want to be faster and I want to do better on my races. I think my ultimate goal for this year is to run a half marathon in less than 2 hours. I think that's a good start.

Another new adventure

Well, I'm starting again. It's been a while and right now I really feel the need to get back to writing.

On December 4th, 2012 (at 38weeks) after a few hours of labor our 5th child, Emmett, was born at 12:49am. He was 7lb 3oz and 19" long. Within a few seconds of delivery they took him from me and within 4 hours they were taking him to Primary Children's Hospital for breathing problems. My husband went with them in the ambulance and was there for about 13 hours before I could get the doctor to release me to get over there to be with them.

It turned out little Emmett didn't have surfactant in his lungs so they didn't want to work right. Then it turned out that he got a form of pneumonia on top of that. Then they did a heart echo an found that he had PPHN on top of that which was making it even harder to breathe. Every day for 2 weeks (so far) I've been driving the 45 min drive to the hospital in the morning and then driving back home to be with the other kids. Our neighbors have been amazing through it all. They've watched our kids, brought us meals, and given us any support we've needed. It's tough not having family close, but its great having awesome neighbors.

I haven't wanted to run more in the past year as I have in the past two weeks. It sucks having to recover from delivery and a uterine infection and not being able to run to relieve all the stress from this experience.

Right now, while I sit in the hospital with my boy in my arms and listening to the nurses talk and the bells ding, I dream about running outside in the cold as fast as I can to free myself from the stress.

Emmett is doing better. His oxygen needs are minimal, his last heart echo looked good (the PPHN might be gone), and now they're keeping him here another week to make sure he's feeding well. I've been pumping every day and our freezer is stocked full of milk for when he gets home.

He's such an adorable boy. I miss him so much, even when he's here in my arms. I just want to take him home so we can be together as a family. I'm sure the nurses think I'm nuts bawling at the drop of a hat, but I feel like my limit has been reached and I need to let it all out.

I NEED TO RUN!!!

AF Half

I signed up for this race last year and loved it so much that my sister and I signed up for it once registration opened this year. Little did I know, I'd be 15 weeks pregnant while running it... 

I have been able to get my awesome sister to run my races so far, but she was already running this one, so I had to suck it up and run. I haven't trained at all besides the 6 miler from the Provo City Half relay and that was a while ago. 

The alarm went off at 3:20am and I got ready and headed out the door. I met up with Joy and we were on the 4th bus up to the start. Since we were one of the first buses we got some fun, throw away HUGE, white gloves and a raffle ticket. Joy didn't bring a jacket and was freezing her butt off in her tank so, I shared. I have more meat to keep me warm. :)

Joy was hoping for a PR so, she hung out with the 1.55 pacer and I headed to the back of the pack. I knew I'd be doing a LOT of walking, so there was no need for me to be in the way.

My goal was to finish. I wanted to run as much as I could, but I didn't know how much that would actually be. I ran the first 3 miles and was feeling good. We came to a water stop and I decided to walk. I thought it'd be better to walk when I wasn't completely exhausted and then pick up the pace again in a little bit. I started running again before mile 4 hit.

Around mile 5 I stopped to take a picture. The run was so beautiful I couldn't help but enjoy it. We ran by a couple camp grounds and we could smell their fires. I think we'll have to go camping up there some time. Anyway... after I took the picture I started running again.

After I got out of the canyon I took advantage of the next rest stop around mile 8 and went potty. My bladder was begging to be emptied since mile 6. After that I started walking. My thighs were burning and my butt was aching. I gave my sister a call to see if she finished. She ended up sticking with the 1.55 pacer until mile 10 when she got a bad side cramp and had to walk 2 miles. The 2.10 pacer came up behind her and she finished with her. She ended up running it in 2.08. She's so great. I told her I still had a ways to go, so I'd be there in about an hour.

Around mile 10 my hands were swelling like crazy, that always happens when I walk for a long way. I don't know if it's cause my hands are down by my sides or what. They were starting to hurt from being so swollen. I passed a couple sprinklers and I tried to take advantage of walking through them, but each time I'd get close they'd shut off and switch to the other part of the lawn. :( Oh well, I was almost there 3 miles left. I could totally do this. I saw one lady being pulled off the course by family (I'm assuming) and she could barely walk. I was just glad that, that wasn't me.

.5 miles to go and my feet, legs, butt... EVERYTHING was aching. My body didn't want to run. It was only .5, you think I could have picked up the pace a little. I ended up running the last .25 though! Yay for finishing running!

My final time was 3.20.26. Not too bad for being prego and not training a bit.

One of the big pluses about taking forever to run is when you finish everyone is starting to clean up. So, you get lots of extra free stuff. Joy is a total freegan. If there's something for free she'll get it. The people from Kneaders were providing SUPER delicious french toast to finishers and they were closing up shop when I finished so, they gave her a WHOLE HUGE tray filled with the french toast... FOR FREE. I should have had her get one for me! 

Anyway, it was a great race and we had lots of fun. Right now though, a day later, my body hates me and doesn't want me moving. Haha! My back, arms, legs, butt, feet... everything. I just hurt. I'm waddling around like I'm 8 months prego rather than 4. 

The next half I have scheduled is the SoJo in October. Joy's planning on running for me. Though... She signed up for her first MARATHON and is running that in September. Yay, JOY! She's totally hooked. :)

Missing out

Well, I haven't been on here in forever and I miss it. I miss being able to tell about how I got up early and ran. How I pushed though certain hurdles. But, you know what... right now I'm building something and it's taking EVERYTHING out of me.

Baby #5 is on the way and I have been hit with the worst morning sickness EVER. It's actually more of an ALL DAY sickness. The good and the bad part: I don't throw up. So, the nausea just sits in my gut and drives me crazy. For a couple weeks I could barely get off the couch it was so bad. I tried throwing up a couple times only to pull a muscle in my tongue. Haha! Yeah, I'm weird. I've never been hit this hard before. With all the other kids there was maybe one day where a felt a little yucky, but nothing to complain about. Then baby #5 starts baking and BAM! Ugh... Luckily, I'm 10 weeks along now so, the nausea is almost gone, but the super tiredness is still hanging around.

Today is National Running Day and I want SO bad to go out and run, but every time I think about it I just feel SO tired. Maybe I need to get out and run anyway. We'll see.

Yay for baby #5 though! We're excited!! He/she should be here sometime between Christmas and New Years. The kids are all praying for a boy so Caleb isn't the only boy in a sea of girls. He was patting my belly today and talking to his "baby brother". :) He's such a good boy. I know he'd be SO excited to have a little brother.